From Factions to Fusions?: The Rise and Fall of Two-Club Rivalries in Belgian Football

Abstract

This article builds on previous work regarding the growing number of mergers among Belgian football clubs since 1960. The aim here is to explain why there were so many football clubs in the first place, and more specifically how two-club rivalries became the norm even in small towns and villages. Analysis of many case studies of two-club rivalries reveals that the prior pillarization of Belgian society is the most significant factor in explaining the pattern of club rivalries. Mergers between rival clubs began to escalate from 1960 onwards as the language divide became the key political cleavage in place of the Catholic, Liberal and Socialist pillars. The concept of factions proved relevant only in the case of resurrected clubs, where a section of supporters reform a club which has been merged with another by the club directors.